This module is structured in four parts. At the core of the module is a handbook that takes you week-by-week through methods, readings and writing exercises. This handbook covers the first three parts of the module. The fourth part is a period of independent study and project work. The handbook is complemented by online study material containing audios, videos, animations and other interactive exercises to enhance your learning, such as interviews with writers and discussions with publishing industry professionals. Online tutorials offer additional opportunities to receive guidance and support from tutors.
Part 1: Ways of writing
You'll begin by looking at different approaches to writing. In particular, you'll focus on the influence of genre, world-building in dystopian and fantasy fiction, setting in life writing and narrative in poetry. Work includes readings and writing exercises in fiction, poetry, and life writing.
Part 2: Dramatic writing
You'll progress to explore writing techniques for three dramatic media: stage, screen and audio, which will illustrate the narrative strengths and constraints of each medium. You'll examine the conventional layouts for these media, and this part will also deal with dramatic principles connected to dialogue, subtext, status and exposition, as well as media-specific elements such as sets for the stage, aural contrast in audio and montage in film. You’ll also explore and practise the techniques involved in adapting work in other forms to script.
Part 3: Developing style and structure
You'll look at how some of the methods used in dramatic writing can improve fiction writing, life writing and poetry, and vice versa. You’ll consider the inner world in life writing and dramatic techniques in poetry. This section goes on to explore writing approaches in a wide-ranging fashion, covering time, voice, long and short-form work, theme and structure, and the uses of rhetoric and analogy. You’ll focus on improving your approach to structure, style and voice in all forms.
Part 4: Independent study
This final part involves working on a larger project, culminating in the presentation of an end-of-module assessment comprising a substantial piece of creative writing in one of the forms taught in the module – fiction, poetry, life writing or drama.
As in Creative writing (A215), the emphasis is very much on practice through guided activities, although as the module progresses, you will increasingly be expected to generate and develop your own ideas without reliance on the study materials. In comparison to the OU level 2 module, the emphasis will be on working independently to enhance and improve your approach to structure, style and voice. You'll spend longer developing, editing and redrafting your work.
Online tutor-group forums will enable peer-group discussion of some of your work. You'll be expected to engage in these activities, giving impersonal and informed evaluations of your own and others’ work through constructive criticism. Some of the tutor-marked assignments will require evidence of engagement on the online forum.
You’ll get help and support from an assigned tutor throughout your module.
They’ll help by:
Online tutorials run throughout the module. While they’re not compulsory, we strongly encourage you to participate. Where possible, we’ll make recordings available.
Course work includes:
You’ll be provided with the printed module handbook, which is the principal guide to your learning, and have access to a module website, which includes:
You can study this module on its own or use the credits you gain towards an Open University qualification.
A363 is a compulsory module in our:
A363 is an option module in our:
Advanced creative writing starts once a year – in October.
This page describes the module that will start in October 2026.
We expect it to start for the last time in October 2035.
As a student of The Open University, you should be aware of the content of the academic regulations, which are available on our Student Policies and Regulations website.
This module builds on the explicit skills taught in Creative writing (A215), which you should ideally have completed or equivalent study before embarking on this module.
If this is your first creative writing module, then ‘equivalent study’ would comprise preparation, including our Creative Writing Tasters and Exercises, which include interviews with writers, sample writing exercises and links to other creative writing study at the OU.
If you have any doubt about the suitability of the module, please speak to an adviser.
You are also strongly advised to prepare for the module by reading Creative Writing: A workbook with readings (2nd edition).
The OU strives to make all aspects of study accessible to everyone, and this Accessibility Statement outlines what studying A363 involves. You should use this information to inform your study preparations and any discussions with us about how we can meet your needs.
To find out more about what kind of support and adjustments might be available, contact us or visit our Disability support website.
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There may be extra costs on top of the tuition fee, such as set books, a computer and internet access.
If your income is not more than £25,000 or you receive a qualifying benefit, you might be eligible for help with some of these costs after your module has started.
There may be extra costs on top of the tuition fee, such as set books, a computer and internet access.
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Please note: your permanent address/domicile will affect your fee status and, therefore, the fees you are charged and any financial support available to you. The fee information provided here is valid for modules starting before 31 July 2026. Fees typically increase annually. For further information about the University's fee policy, visit our Fee Rules.
